Shoe lace



Nov. 29, 1960 ca. R. COFFEY SHOE-LACE Filed Jan. 2, 1958 George R. Coffey INVENTOR.

7 7 SHOE LACE George R. Colley, 2336 S. 34th St., Omaha, Nebr.

Filed Jan. 2, 1958, Ser. No. 706,721 1 Claim. (cl. 24-143) The present invention relates to shoe laces, generally speaking, and has more particular reference to one which is highly attractive and ornamental in character and is expressly, but not necessarily, adapted to appeal to members of the teen-age set as well as to other persons evincing a flare for an interest in novelty characteristics, school colors, and events of a festive or similar nature.

Although the invention is primarily that which is designed for use in connection with eyelets in shoes it will be evident that it is also equally well intended and appropriate for use on and in conjunction with articles of apparel, essentially those for female attire, which (like sweaters, skirts, blouses and the like) have eyelets to accommodate insertable and removable laces.

The use of ornaments on shoe lace ends or tips is, of course, not broadly new as evidenced for example in the tassel-end construction seen in the Ecclesine Patent 1,600,625 and again in a patent to Rose 1,586,473 revealing detachable ornaments. It follows that one objective in the instant matter is to structurally, functionally and otherwise vary, change and improve upon known prior art adaptations and, in doing so, to promote the activities of the current fad of teenagers who seek to devise and carry out ways and means of dressing according to occasion and attire during school activities, dances, football games, basketball games and so on and so forth.

To this end, a lace of suitable material having a tip at one end is offered, there being an attractive ornament of prerequisite color, design and unique characteristics on the other end. Alternatively, the concept has to do with a shoe lace with tips on opposite ends carrying readily applicable and removable ornaments, particularly ornaments which in and of themselves are attractive but which are of sectional construction so that the sections may be interchanged to add to the novelly functioning aspect of the over-all lace.

Other and more specific objects, features and advan tages of the invention will become more readily apparent taking the following description and claim in conjunction with the illustrative views of the drawing.

In the drawing, wherein like numerals are employed to designate like parts throughout the views:

Fig. l is a perspective view showing a fragmentary portion of a shoe and revealing one embodiment of the invention showing, of course, how it is used.

Fig. 2 is a similar perspective view showing another embodiment and how its components are constructed and used.

P IC

As a matter of fact, the shoe lace 12 is perhaps conventional so far as the shoe lace proper is concerned. That is to say there is a single shoe lace here laced through the eyelets in a regular mode of use and the free end portions 14 are provided with suitable tips (not detailed) and to which the ornaments are separably connected. By taking the ornaments off, the tips may be passed through the eyelets in a customary fashion. Each ornament, structurally construed, is the same here and each one is denoted by the numeral 16. It can be assumed for sake of illustration that the ornament depicted in Fig. 1 is that which is illustrated in Fig. 3 and which takes the form of a spherical shell or hollow ball having a semispherical top section 18 with a socket-like attaching neck- 20 and with a lower edge 22 provided with circumferwhich serve as simple detents and which are adapted to snap releasably into cooperating indentations 26 in the edge portion 28 of the bottom half or section 30. Here again indentations form what may be described as keeper seats for the detents 24. Stated otherwise the edges 22 and 28 are separably joined by snap fasteners. The top half-section 18 may be of one color, shade or design and the lower or bottom section may be painted, or provided with surface ornamentation of a contrasting color. The idea would be to have any number of interchangeable cooperating half-sections 18 and 30 to be selectively chosen and used according to the discretion of each user.

Before taking up the slightly diversified aspect of the invention depicted in Fig. 2 reference is made to Figs. 4, 5 and 6 showing a. modified construction of the ornament. While it is a ball-like construction, the fastening means is different. Here the ball-like ornament is denoted by the numeral 32. As seen in Fig. 5 the end portion 34 of the lace is provided with the usual tubular or sleeve-like tip 36 except in this instance the upper end is fashioned into an endless retaining bead, head or shoulder 38 and the lower end portion has its terminal split with the components spread apart or flared as at 40. The tip passes down through an elongated neck or socket 42 formed on the center of the crown of the top half section 44 of the ball-like ornament 32. The upper end of the neck is so formed, as at 46 to provide an endless retaining element or socket in which the head 38 is engaged. This snaps over the bead 38 and thus the neck is attached to the tip. Before the lower semispherical half-section 48 is applied, the ends 40 are spread apart to thus provide a permanent retaining connection between the tip 36 and the section 44. The bottom edge 56 of the section is formed with diametrically opposite channel-shaped clips 52 which in plan are approximately segmental in shape as seen in Fig. 6. These are adapted to removably receive the correspondingly positioned flanges 54 on the edge portion 56 of the bottom section. The two sections are moved or rotated relative to each other to provide the interfitting or interlocking joint which is evident from the showing seen in Fig. 5. So, here again the ball-like ornament is made up of helf-sections which are separably connected together to permit the same to be varied and changed in keeping with the invention.

In Fig. 2 instead of using a single lace, as in Fig. 1 with ball ornaments on the tip ends, two distinct laces are employed. The ornaments here may be either of the type seen in Fig. 4 or Fig. 3 as the case may be. Usually they are of the form seen in Fig. 4 with the ornaments permanently attached so that there is an ornament at one end of the shoe lace and a tip at the other end. One lace is here denoted by the numeral 58 and in practice will be of one color, say red. The other lace 60 will be of the same length but of a diiferent color, say white. This makes it possible to use two short laces and to lace them up in the manner seen in Fig. 2 with the tips 62 at the upper ends and with the changeable ornaments at the lower ends. One tip may be laced or inserted through the eyelet 64 and carried straight across and then threaded back through the eyelet 66 and then laced in a zig-zag' fashion'and the tip of the other lace will be reversed, that is, laced through the eyelet 66 and then brought up to the eyelet 64 and then laced up in the manner shown. This means that there is a crossing of red and white laces as at the points or places 68. So, in addition to the distinctive ball ornaments the laces themselves are distinguishable and add further to the overall unique concept.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention as claimed.

What is claimed as new is as follows:

A shoe lace comprising tubular tips on its end portions, and hollow ornamental balls removably mounted on said tips, said balls including integral necks slidably receiving the tips, said tips comprising longitudinally split, bendable and flared free end portions engaged in the balls for anchoring same on the tips, said balls further including complemental half sections, said half sections being separable for providing access to the tips whereby said free end portions thereof may be flared for anchoring the balls or contracted preparatory to removing said balls.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,413,247 Wilson Apr. 18, 1922 1,586,473 Rose May 25, 1926 2,612,135 Iny Sept. 30, 1952 2,794,284 Burnbaum June 4, 1957 

